Paddy Power moving to Belfield

Bookmaker Paddy Power is taking advantage of high vacancy rates in Dublin to move its HQ from Tallaght to Belfield Office Park in D4,, writes JACK FAGAN

IRISH bookmaker Paddy Power is to move its headquarters to Belfield Office Park in Dublin 4 where it is to rent 11,148sq m (120,000sq ft) in three adjoining buildings. The letting will be the largest in the Dublin area for at least two years.

The company, currently based in Tallaght, is set to take advantage of the high vacancy rates in the city to move to one of the prime office locations at attractive rental terms.

The 15-year lease provides for five-year break options, a rent free period of around 18 months and an initial rent of around €139 per sq m (€13 per sq ft).

The office campus has over 300 car parking spaces – one of the highest parking provisions in the city. Hewlett Packard previously occupied the three blocks, which are located off Beech Hill Road, next to UCD.

Two of the six-storey blocks have a striking triple-height reception area while the third building has a double height entrance.

Joint agents CB Richard Ellis and HT Meagher O’Reilly handled the letting for developers John Flynn and Paddy Kelly while Mark Smyth of Knight Frank advised Paddy Power.

With a number of companies now looking for substantial office space in the Dublin area, CBRE has identified only 19 properties in Dublin city centre and the suburbs with floor areas in excess of 7,000sq m (75,347sq ft). Most of the available buildings are described as “Grade A” and are newly built.

The property consultants said that although overall vacancy levels in the city are high at just less than 23 per cent, the majority of vacant space comprises floors in otherwise vacant buildings.

In the city’s central business district (Dublin 2 and 4), where the vacancy rate stands at 17.4 per cent, there are only seven office properties with enough vacant space to accommodate an occupier requiring 7,000sq m (75,347sq ft) or more.

The vacant Grade A properties in Dublin 2 and 4 are Burlington Plaza on Burlington Road (15,268sq m/164,343sq ft ); No 5 Grand Canal Square (11,210sq m/120,663sq ft); HQ3 Elm Park, Merrion Road (8,106sq m/87,252sq ft); The Observatory, Sir John Rogerson Quay (7,475sq m/80,460sq ft) and The Bloodstone Building, Sir John Rogerson Quay (7,031sq m/75,681sq ft ).

Darren Nugent of CBRE said that while vacancy levels in Dublin remained high there were limited options for large international occupiers looking to locate major operations in Dublin, such as an EU headquarters.

There were five such buildings in the districts of Dublin 1, 3 and 7, most to the north and east of the IFSC, while there were seven such properties in Dublin 2 and 4.

In the suburbs there were an additional seven buildings suitable to an occupier requiring 7,000sq m (75,347sq ft) or more, four of which were clustered in the Dublin 18 postcode in the south suburbs.